


The Power of Words

by Coraleeveritas



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fic-a-versary, First Meetings, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 00:57:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14706098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coraleeveritas/pseuds/Coraleeveritas
Summary: Brienne and Jaime have been playing online scrabble against each other for months and have decided to meet in real life for the first time.





	The Power of Words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justme (silver_spring)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_spring/gifts).



> Another filled prompt for my five year fic anniversary. I've absolutely adored writing this one and I had to hold myself back from going overboard with backstory.
> 
> Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me but my mistakes definetly do!

Pushing his hand deeper into the pocket of his cashmere pea coat, Jaime took another look up at the arrivals board stretching across the front of the station, ruby red flashing letters indicating that her train had come across further delays. On a normal day the journey from Highgarden would have only taken a couple of hours but the recent high winds and heavy rainfall had taken its toll on the tracks, his wait becoming just as long as her ride.

As he took a sip from the rapidly cooling coffee he'd bought to help pass the time, Jaime felt his phone vibrate angrily with the news that a message had arrived. It was likely just his brother checking that he was he hadn't lost his mind, again, but the possibility it was from Oathkeeper, _Brienne_ , almost made his heart skip a beat. They'd only known each other for about nine months, originally as viciously adversarial Scrabble opponents online, Oathkeeper not afraid to call out every spurious triple word score Kingslayer put down, dictionary corner proving her right just as often as him. Jaime knew he was good, working as an accountant for the Kings Landing public library service meant he had thousands of rare books at his fingertips, but she was maybe even better. It intrigued him, this smart upstart, capturing his attention so much that when the summer team tournament rolled around again, Oathkeeper was the only person he wanted as a partner.

Of course she wasn't best pleased with his choice at first, the boards instant messaging service becoming a war of words in the days following the announcement, and being Scrabble champions they knew how to wield them perfectly, but her decidedly frosty reception warmed after they decimated their third round opponents; BearLover and KissedByFire. Jaime knew they'd been good on their own but when they actually worked together properly they were proving to be damn near unstoppable.

It wasn't until later that she told him BearLover had been creeping on her for weeks and a solid defeat so far on in the competition, with the Kingslayer backing her up, had sent the idiot scurrying back under whatever rock he'd crawled out of originally.

Though it wasn't always sunshine and cotton candy between them after that, Kingslayer and Oathkeeper definitely passed into the a new era of friendship once the tournament ended, friends that exchanged messages well into the night that had nothing to do with gameplay or scoreboards, friends that shared the highs of their respective jobs, the lows of trying to date in the social media age and complained about family commitments that took up too much of their spare time. He learned how to use talk-to-text while working out, she skipped out of a couple of awful team building lunches a week to chat with him, Jaime falling asleep to her words most Friday nights. And they still butted heads online every other night putting together letters in the most obscure combinations they could think of.

The message she had just sent, though, wasn't nearly as profuse as her late night takedowns.

_It's going to be another forty, forty five minutes, Jaime. You sure you don't want to go home and meet me later?_

_And have you risk not finding a cab in this city?_ he tapped out in reply. _I've got my tablet, I'll be fine._

_Don't be too disappointed when you meet me._

She'd said it before and he didn't dignify it with an answer that time either. _How do you like your coffee? I'll get you anything that doesn't come in a rainbow unicorn cup._

Through their never ending chats, Jaime also discovered that she, _Brienne_ , was at least a decade younger than him but he promised himself that really didn't matter since he wasn't interested in her romantically. She was just a good friend who he wanted to be the first person to know about anything new in his life. He was too old, too maimed, too arrogant to want anything more than that. It wasn't as if he was falling in love with her or anything.

_Ha ha ha. I'm almost tempted to ask for something overly complicated but a cappuccino would make everything better, thanks._

_Your wish is my command._

_Are you going to be like this all weekend?_

_Can't promise I won't be worse._

When Brienne mentioned a little while back that she'd been invited to present her research at a conference in Kings Landing, playing down the achievement in a way he hoped indicated nerves over other things as well, his fingers reacted before his brain could stop him asking her out for dinner. She only accepted on the proviso that they went to somewhere she didn't have in the Reach, no Golden Circle or Pentoshi Express but a place that was unique, tasty and atmospheric. That little nugget kept Jaime smiling all throughout a particularly long Monday where none of the numbers would add up correctly.

Sharp as he was, it hadn't taken long before Jaime's brother had noticed that something profound was happening. Tyrion even offered to have his firm run a background check on this 'woman' who'd supposedly been a research assistant for both of their father's fiercest critics and was now a lecturer in medieval history at Highgarden College, but Jaime couldn't handle betraying Brienne's trust just when he'd gained it.

He only hoped Tyrion wasn't right and that most of the last year hadn't been part of an elaborate catfish scheme. Lannisters seemed to attract their fair share of crazy, but there was nothing about Jaime's screen name or job situation that screamed million dragon trust fund and all their messages had done nothing to disprove what he already felt about her; Brienne was smart, capable, funny and quite possibly the woman of his dreams.

He was onto his third coffee, and second episode of Gulltown 99, when the station all but erupted at the tinny announcement that the Highgarden train had finally arrived. Feeling far more nervous than he'd been expecting, Jaime threw his cup in the trash and strode towards the stream of people making their way to the exit. He'd thought about making a cheesy sign to welcome her to the capital but decided instead to send her a quick selfie of him standing by the Burger King.

"Jaime?"

He glanced up from his phone, staring straight into the deep blue eyes of a tall blonde woman, freckles covering her plain face that was starting to light up with the hint of a smile.

"Brienne?"

The woman nodded, ducking her head to hide the furious blush that flooded across her cheeks, fumbling with her bags while she tried to extricate a hand for shaking. "It's so nice to meet you. I mean see you. I mean I know you, I-"

"Yeah," he smiled, taking all of her in again without any sense of disappointment as she did the same with him, their eyes locking for a second that promised sparks to come, and for the first time in his life, Jaime Lannister was pleasantly lost for words.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! There's one more of these fic anniversary fics to come :)


End file.
